May 10: John Louis Clarke (1881-1970)

John Clark Carving Bear (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

Born on this date in 1881, woodcarver John Louis Clarke, aka "Cutapuis." He was born in Highwood, Montana Territory, to Blackfoot parents (one of his grandparents was Scottish). The family was devastated in 1883, when five sons died from scarlet fever; the sixth son, John, age 2, survived with deafness; he did not learn to speak after that. He attended schools for Indian and deaf children in North Dakota, Montana, and Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, he began working at a factory that made carved church altars. He opened his own carving studio in 1913, and had his first show in Helena in 1916.

Clarke's highly detailed carvings of animals were exhibited widely and popular with buyers. Clarke's wife Mamie acted as his agent until she died in 1947, when their daughter Joyce took over that role so Clarke could concentrate on his carving. The story goes that he had his carving tools with him in the hospital room when he died at 89.

February 24: Gustinus Ambrosi (1893-1975)

[Image description: Gustinus Ambrosi in his later years, outdoors, on a footpath near a stream, holding a fishing rod and a fish; his hair is white and windblown]

Austrian sculptor Gustinus Ambrosi was born on this date in 1893, at Eisenstadt near Vienna. He was a musical prodigy before he contracted meningitis at age 7; he survived with "total deafness." The boy soon turned his artistic inclinations to sculpture: as a teenaged apprentice, he studied sculpture at night. Soon, he'd produced his first sculpture of note, titled "Man with the Broken Neck." While still a teenager, he won a prestigious national prize for sculpture.

Ambrosi went on to create over 3000 works, at least 600 of them portrait busts of many of the leaders of European politics and culture in the 1930s. The story goes that he was allowed to work on his bust of Mussolini during closed government meetings, because it was understood that he could not overhear any confidential discussions. He maintained studios in Vienna, Rome, Paris, London, and Brussels in his lifetime. For the 100th anniversary of Gallaudet University, Ambrosi was commissioned to create a sculpture of Edward Miner Gallaudet. Ambrosi also wrote and published volumes of German poetry.

Today, there is an Ambrosi Museum in Vienna, dedicated to the display of his works. His friend, composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, wrote a piano quintet dedicated to Gustinus Ambrosi.

[Ambrosi is the second alphabetical entry in Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences, Bonnie Meath-Lang, ed. (Greenwood Publishing 1995).]

Re/Formations: Disability, Women, and Sculpture: Exhibit Opening 1/15 (x-SDS)

From January 16 through February 27, the Van Every/ Smith Galleries at Davidson College will present RE/FORMATIONS: Disability, Women, and Sculpture.

Untitled (blue high heeled women's pumps, with bent wooden heels). Part of the RE/FORMATIONS installation, Molt, with Scurs*, 2008

Five female artists will exhibit sculpture that examines disability not as mental or physical insufficiency, but as a cultural identity. The artists included are Nancy Fried, Rebecca Horn, Judith Scott, Harriet Sanderson, and Laura Splan. Re/Formations, the first exhibit of its kind, was born of the desire to explore the intersection of disability and female identity as expressed through the medium of sculpture. These identities, while not identical, hold so much in common. Women and the disabled have been relegated to secondary status in society, cast as those excessive and unruly bodies against which the normate defines itself. The exhibit contains both sculptures and installations that are by turns contemplative and confrontational, and explore a number of questions: what is the new disability art? How can art make material the disability experience? If an artist’s mobility or intentionality do not match what we think of as “typical,” what possibilities does that open up for invigorating how we understand art itself?

There will be a panel discussion on “Women, Disability, and Art” on January 15th at 7 p.m. in the C. Shaw Smith 900 Room of The Alvarez College Union featuring Dr. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Dr. Ann Millet-Gallant, Laura Splan, Harriet Sanderson, Jessica Cooley, and moderated by myself.

Untitled (JS 33), 2004 Mixed Media (fiber and found objects including a child-sized chair and tire rim with spokes) 17x21x29”

The exhibition opening and dessert reception will follow the panel discussion from 8 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. at the Van Every/Smith Galleries in the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center. The galleries are open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4 p.m. For information, call 704-894-2575. Please note that the exhibit is fully accessible and audio described.

Please note that there are two other exhibits complementing Re/Formations; an exhibit of works from the Davidson College collection with disability themes, and an exhibit in the Union of works from Charlotte’s LifeSpan, Inc., a local arts organization that works with disabled artists.

This exhibit has been co-curated by Jessica Cooley ‘05, Assistant Curator of the Van Every/Smith Galleries, and Ann M. Fox, Associate Professor of English. After Davidson College, it will travel to the National Institute of Art & Disabilities in Richmond, CA.

RE/FORMATIONS: Disability, Women, and Sculpture is made possible through the generous support of:

The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation
The Ethel Louise Armstrong Foundation, Inc
Wachovia Corporation
Davidson College Friends of the Arts
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC
Anonymous
Davidson College Dean of Students Office
Davidson College English Department
Davidson College German Department
Davidson College Gender Studies Concentration
Davidson College Medical Humanities Program
Davidson College Public Lectures Committee
LifeSpan Incorporated
The Arts & Science Council and the Grassroots Program of the North Carolina Arts Council (a state agency)
The National Endowment for the Arts
The North Carolina Arts Council with funding from the state of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.